‘Clock boy’ discrimination case thrown out by Texas judge

Image caption
Ahmed and his family have moved to Qatar for his schooling since the incident

A US judge has thrown out a discrimination case brought by the family of a Muslim student whose homemade clock was mistaken for a bomb.

In 2015 Ahmed Mohamed was arrested in a suburb of Dallas, Texas, after his teacher said the clock looked like an explosive device.

Photos of the 14-year-old’s arrest sparked a public outcry.

But on Thursday a Texas judge ruled there was no evidence of racial or religious discrimination.

“Plaintiff does not allege any facts from which this court can reasonably infer” that Irving Independent School District employees “intentionally discriminated” against Ahmed Mohamed, wrote US District Judge Sam Lindsay in his ruling.

Image copyrightReuters

Image caption
Ahmed’s homemade clock was mistaken for a bomb

He also dismissed a complaint against the school principal saying it was “factually deficient” to allege that Ahmed was treated “differently than other similarly situated students, and that the unequal treatment was based on religion or race”.

Ahmed, whom US media dubbed “clock boy”, was originally charged with having a “hoax bomb” after he brought the digital clock display in a small briefcase to the classroom at MacArthur High School in Irving.

But those charges were later dropped.

Media captionAhmed Mohamed went to the White House in 2015 where he met then-President Barack Obama

The family’s lawyer, Susan Hutchison, said when their lawsuit was first filed: “They knew it wasn’t a bomb, that he never threatened anyone, that he never said it was a bomb, that he never alarmed anyone.

“Despite all of those things, they yanked him out of his chair, put him in handcuffs and arrested him. There was no cause for arrest.”

#IStandWithAhmed trended on Twitter after the arrest and the teenager was invited to an astronomy event at the White House where he spoke to then-President Barack Obama.

Shortly after the incident, the boy’s family moved to Qatar, before moving back to Texas a few months later.